An inspection apparatus known in the art determines the acceptability of an inspection object by storing conforming article data, as a model pattern, of the inspection object, such as molded characters on a product, and calculating the degree of agreement between the image pattern obtained of the inspection object and the model pattern (see Patent Document 1).
However, in such an inspection, some products, which are in fact conforming units, may show low degrees of agreement between the image pattern of the inspection object and the model pattern. Such situations may sometimes lead to judgment of conforming articles as nonconforming. For example, let us assume an inspection for acceptability of the molded state of a character an inspection for acceptability of the molded state of a character string, which is an inspection object with protrusions and recesses molded on the side of the tire. Tires before such inspection are placed in a certain location temporarily, and, as a result, the sides of tires can get deformed by the sagging of the rubber or the overlap of belts. ?? With a character string molded on the side of a tire deformed as described above, there will be drops in the degree of agreement of the model pattern with the image pattern of the character string. Consequently, it may be possible that the character string molded correctly on the side of a tire is judged as nonconforming.